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Bank records: 17.7% of small US firms had paid for AI by end-2025

By December 2025, 17.7% of small firms had paid for an AI service at least once, up from 1.7% in January 2019. The median paying firm spent about $28 a month on AI in 2025. Firms with employees paid for AI more often than sole traders.

By
Last reviewed
Type of study
Data analysis
Published
2026
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At a glance

Source
Wheat, Mac and Passalacqua (JPMorganChase Institute) (2026). Understanding the use of AI among small businesses. JPMorganChase Institute, published 14 April 2026. jpmorganchase.com · Not peer-reviewed: other researchers have not yet checked it for a journal.
How it was done
The authors looked at small firms’ business-account payments at Chase from 2019 to 2025. A firm counted as an adopter once it had paid any of more than 500 AI services. Data analysis. It builds a measure from existing data, such as job and task records.
Who took part
More than 4.6 million small firms with Chase business accounts, in 15 industries, January 2019 to December 2025.
Where
United States.

“Our analysis focuses on paid AI services and does not capture free tool usage or custom developments.”

What it found

  • How many have paid. 17.7% of the firms had paid for AI by December 2025. The figure was 1.7% in January 2019, 8.3% at the end of 2023 and 11.6% in 2024.
  • How fast new firms take it up. Firms that started in 2019 took about 77 months to reach 10% adoption. Firms that started in 2025 took about 6.
  • How much they spend. The median monthly spend on AI peaked at about $78 in 2022 and fell to about $28 in 2025. In 2025, 63% of paying firms spent $1–40 a month. That is about the price of one chat-tool subscription.
  • Employers and sole traders. 26.1% of firms with employees had paid for AI, against 15.3% of firms with no employees.
  • Firm revenue. Among firms with employees, those with annual revenue of $250,000 or less paid for AI about as often as larger ones (27.6% against 25.8%).
  • Industry. Adoption ranged from 39.3% in information to 8.9% in construction and 5.4% in transport and warehousing.

Who owns the firm

A second report from the same team, published on 28 May 2026, inferred owners from the people authorised to sign on each account (JPMorganChase Institute). By the end of 2025, 22.1% of firms owned by Millennials had paid for AI, against 18.6% for Gen Z, 16.8% for Gen X and 10.3% for Baby Boomers. 19.7% of male-owned firms had paid for AI, against 17.2% of female-owned firms. The gender gap was largest among Gen Z owners (20.0% against 13.9%) and almost nil among Baby Boomers (10.4% against 9.9%). Gender could be assigned for 52% of firms and generation for 90%.

When the result holds

These are records of money paid, not answers to a survey. They show what a typical small firm spends: about one subscription. Surveys that ask whether a firm “uses AI” give much higher figures. The 17.7% is close to the US Census Bureau’s count of firms using AI.

Limits

  • Free tools, tools a firm built itself and AI features inside other software do not show up.
  • A firm counts as an adopter once it has paid, even if it stopped paying later. The reports give no figures on firms that cancelled.
  • Chase customers only, in the United States. The research unit belongs to a bank. Not peer-reviewed.

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